Schwinn IC4: amzn.to/3kEhoI1 (may be sold out?)
order directly from Schwinn: bit.ly/schwinnIC4 (IN STOCK)
Peloton discount: amzn.to/3T30Ivd (free shipping)
Text review: tailhappytv.com/schwinn-ic4-r...
This is my Schwinn IC4 review and in the next few minutes I'm going to rate it on a scale of 0 - 10 in each of the ten individual categories of the TailHappy Score and share my thoughts and opinions along the way, then at the end of this video i'll add up the individual category ratings and give the Schwinn IC4 a TailHappy Score to see how this bike compares on a scale from 0-100 to other popular peloton alternative indoor cycling bikes. The schwinn ic4 is basically the same bike as the bowflex c6 from my understanding. #TailHappyScore
Starting this Schwinn IC4 review with the basics, the bike costs about $900 depending when and where you buy it from, I got my Schwinn IC4 on Amazon and it shipped to my front door for free in just a few days. It's one of the most quiet and smooth indoor cycling bikes I have with it's belt driven, magnetic resistance 40 pound fly wheel, which leads me straight into the first category of the tailhappy score, and probably one of the most important components of an indoor bike; the Drive train feel, which simply put is, how does the drive train feel overall? Some bikes feel incredible to hop on and start turning the pedals over, and they transmit feelings of excitement through your mind and body as you crank the pedals faster and inspire you to push yourself to new levels, while some bikes simply don't deliver those exhilarating vibes.
I purchased this schwinn ic4 after the echelon connect bike and I did compare this bike to the echelon, peloton, and several other bikes in other videos on my channel, but this isn't another comparison video, this is a tailhappy score review, so let's dive straight into the first category, drive train feel.
Simply put the drive train on the Schwinn IC4 feels smooth, quiet, and nice. This bike does have magnetic resistance, it's belt driven, and schwinn has the ic4 fly wheel mass listed at 40 lbs which is a respectable flywheel mass. When riding the ic4 the inertia from the flywheel feels smooth and nice when you get that flywheel cranked up to speed, but it's not excessively difficult to get turning either since the flywheel isn't overweight. After spending quite a bit of time on this bike and also hoping on and off this bike and comparing between 6 highly popular indoor cycling bikes side by side overall i'd give this bike a 7 out of 10 on drive train feel.
The maximum user weight listed for the schwinn ic4 is 330lbs similar to the bowflex c6 which is higher than a lot of bikes I review, and may lead you to think this bike has a really high maximum resistance but this actually isn't the case for the bike I have. The resistance knob on the ic4 feels nice to the touch, but more importantly it only takes about 4 rotations to get from 0 to max resistance of 100, which makes it super convenient and easy to jump resistances quickly where as some other bikes take as many as 32 turns to get from max to minimum. The max resistance on the peloton bike plus is 100, and the max resistance on the schwinn bike is also 100 but these are simply numbers and don't mean anything in terms of how hard it is to pedal the bike at max resistance. After hopping back and forth between the schwinn and the peloton bike time and time again I feel like the schwinns max resistance equals about 80 on the peloton bike, which is very difficult to pedal for me at my weight of 190lbs, but like many of the less expensive bikes I have the schwinn does leave more to be desired in max resistance so I give it a 7 in this category and I dont know how this compares to the bowflex c6 max resistance for sure but would guess it is similar.
Metrics
Unlike some budget friendly bikes the schwinn ic4 comes with a mini screen that's actually useful as it gives you important metrics, namely, cadence, and resistance levels on the screen, but it doesn't show you power output.
Features.
The schwinn ic4 is compatible with many platforms and offers integration features not seen on a lot of other indoor bikes. For starters this bike integrates smoothly with the Peloton Digital app, and you can even display your heartrate and cadence of the ic4 onto the peloton app on your own tablet that you bring to the tablet holder up front. The bluetooth connectivity feature turns this bike into a metephorical swiss army knife, at the time of this recording schwinn lists the following data sharing on their website, as you can see this bike pairs nicely with zwift, peloton, sufferfest, rouvy, trainerroad, fulgaz, tacx, which admittedly I know little to nothing about some of these third party apps but schwinn does offer integration abilities with them, so it's not like your buying this bike and getting married to peloton